Chapter 2 - The Glade

146 4 0
                                        

When I came back around, I felt like I was moving upwards. There was an immense pain in my neck, but my fear took over, pushing the pain down until it was alnost completely gone.

I felt like I was in a small room, but I couldn't make out much of my surroundings, as everything was dark.

Slowly, my eyes adjusted to the darkness and I could make out the outlines of boxes scattered across te floor. My original guess was right. I was in a small room, and I could probably touch the opposite wall from where I was sitting.

I sat up and rubbed my eyes. Where was I? Who was I? Why couldn't I remember anything?

Before panic could swell in my chest, I heard a groan to the left of me and spun around. Through the darkness, I could see a boy. Well, I guessed it was a boy, seen as though I was quite a masculine groan, amd his voice was deeper than a girl's.

He groaned again and sat up.

"Where am I?" He asked the darkness. He then must've seen my outline,  because he scrambled back in fear. "Who are you?"

"I-I dunno." Then it hit me like a truck. I didn't know who I was. I didn't know my name. I didn't know my name, my age, my family. I didn't know anything!

"Wait... I don't know my name." The boy looked at his hands as he said it, as though his name would be written on them. "Do you know yours?" He asked me, his voice cracking towards the end of his sentence.

"No... I ....can't remember anything. I dont even know how old I am, or what I ....look like."

"Me neither." He said, and he edged closer to me until we were sat shouler to shouler leaning against a wall of the tiny room we were in.

"Are we in an elavator?" The boy asked, turning his head as he studied the room through the darkness.

"Oh yeah. I never thought about that. We probably are." I replied sarcastically.

"Why are we here?" He said, oblivious to the sarcasm.

"I dunno. We may find out when we get to the top." I didn't add "Like I know the answers! What dya think I am, a mind reader?". So far, this boy was the only other living company I had, so I didn't want to make an enemy from him.

"If we ever do." he muttered, adding synching and happiness to our already glorious thoughts.

Again, note the sarcasm.

Just as he said that, the lift shuddered to a halt. I could hear voices coming from outside and I started to panic.

I looked at the boy next to me and he whispered one word. Hide.

I scrambled behind a box close to where we were sat, just as the roof of the box opened. I could just make out a rope being tossed down and a boy jumped into the lift.

"We got a new Greenie!" He shouted up. I heard shouts and cheers and groans coming from above. Greenie? The word sounded foreign to me.

"What's your name, greenie?" The boy asked.

I peeked around the box I was behind to see Jai standing up next to the other boy. Wait. Jai? Was that his name? How did I remember his name? How did I know this random boys name, and I didn't know my own?

"J-Jai." Jai said. "I think, anyway. Why can't I remember anything?" He asked the other boy.

"I'm Newt. And we can never remember anything. We just know our names. But there will be time for questions later." Newt replied. "Anyway, up you get." He pointed at the rope, and I saw Jai glance at the box where I was hidden.

"What is it?" Newt asked, also peering at a box, though he was looking at one far to my left, nowhere near to where I was hiding. I ducked behind my quickly anyway, out of gear of being seen.

"N-Nothing" Jai stammered, and he reached out to the rope. 

I watched, horrified, as he got hauled up into the blinding sunlight and heard the jeers and calls as other people were shouting at him.

I was so worked up about that, that I didn't notice two other boys had jumped down, before one picked up the box I was hiding behind.

"Gah!" He shouted and threw the box in the air, which hit the other boy on the head and they both fell over eachother. If the situation hadn't been so scary, I would've laughed.

"Jack? Gavin? What are you doing?" A voice shouted from above.

"There's another one! But it, I mean, she's... a girl!" He sounded so shocked and disgusted than it was all I could do not to hit him.

What was wrong with being a girl? Had they never seen one before?

All the shouting stopped at once and it was silent. A thump broke the silence, which meant that another person had come down. He peered down at me and he too looked surprised.

I stood up and whispers broke out.

"A girl?"

"Why?"

"Dibs!"

"No chance! I want her!"

The boy infront of me called up "Silence, slintheads!" And there was silence once more. You could almost hear a pin drop.

"Name?" The boy asked me.

"I can't... wait. I..." Suddenly, I heard a female's voice in my head.

Zoe.

"I think its Zoe." I whispered, sure of what the had woman said.

The boy nodded. "Rope!" He shouted, and the same rope used to haul Jai up, came flying back down.

"Jump up, Newbie. We ain't got all day."

As I climbed up the rope (I refused to be pulled up) I thought about the boy who had talked to me. He didn't seem as nice as Newt, but he wasn't evil, at least.

When I reached the top and stood up, I looked around. I noticed a few things about the place on my quick scan:

1) There was no girls from what I could see.
2) Everyone was staring, wide eyed and open mouthed, at me.
3) Jai was stood next to Newt, and was smiling a me.

I smiled back slowly and turned to Newt. "Where am I?" I asked.

"Welcome to the Glade." I spun around and I was inches away from the boy in the lift. "I'm Alby." He said, holding out his hand. I shook it and took a step back.

"Sorry, but what's the Glade? And why aren't there any other girls?" I asked him.

"The Glade is your new home. And we don't know why there aren't any girls. Or why you were sent with Jai, here."

"Well, it'd have made my journey better if she was with me!" A person called out from the crowd. Many of the boys laughed and agreed, but one boy, who was stood near the front spun around.

"Have some respect, Shuck Face!" He shouted. He was quite tall, with with a large nose and shirt brown hair. His eyes were like a kelidescope- sometimes green, sometimes brown.

"Oooh! Gally's in loooove!!" The boy shouted back, and everyone laughed, apart from myself, Jai, Newt, Alby and the boy called Gally.

"Slim it!" Alby shouted and slowly the laughter died down.

Gally was bright red and had his fists clenched at his sides. I met his eyes and he turned an even brighter red.

Only Herself to Blame...Where stories live. Discover now